If you are easily squeamish, DO NOT READ THE BEGINNING!
Chapter 14: The Massacre of Arrsburg
Voldemort stood three miles out of a town in England called Arrsburg. Barely anyone knew that this place even existed, and the only way to get a good look at it was with a stupid Muggle invention called a satellite.
"Alright. In the town, there is a library, which holds a book called the myth of the Green Flame Torch. The plan, go into the town, four at a time. Each team will secure one prisoner, one who will follow directions and yet still be strong enough to carry out the long journey into the next town.
After you have secured your one prisoner, two of your team will leave the group and head into the edge of town. You will be quick and quiet with your movements. After the town is completely surrounded, and all escape points secure, we will charge the town, killing everyone in our path, understood?"
"Yes, sir." they all said into the unmoving night air.
"Sir, what is the importance of the-"
"Do not ask question that are replied to with answers you would not understand, Goyle."
"Yes, sor-"
"Shut up! Now, after we have the item in question, we light the town, release one prisoner with the town's body parts to Railwood. He will then follow our instructions, and deliver the message to the entire world."
"What is that, sir?"
"That no one can compete with, or destroy us. Let's get on with this."
"Yes, master."
"First team, go."
Four of them Apparated to the edge of the Village, and walked inside, disappearing between the buildings. The Village of Arrsburg wasn't surrounded by forest, but clear, open plains for about ten miles all around the city. Voldemort charmed his eyes to be able to see them. He watched them catch one person and move into a dark alley.
"Second team, go."
The process repeated itself over and over until all eighty Death Eaters were inside the village, hidden in dark alleys or in shadowed places of the town. Voldemort Apparated to one edge of Arrsburg, and saw others doing the same thing. He circled his arm, and sent the group into the village.
Crabbe was walking into the city at an incredibly slow pace, keeping watch for any Muggles that would run out of the buildings. Every entry and exit point was covered, and the entire surrounding area was nothing but field.
Drengar was right next to him, wand raised and ready to kill. She pointed his wand down an alley to see the other two members of his own team looking intensely at their prisoner, a 45 year old male.
Then, a door on one of the houses flew open, and an arguing couple came out, with objects flying at one another. Drengar raised his wand, and aimed at the house. Crabbe fired a quick killing on the woman, while Drengar hit the house with the explosion charm, to signal the start of the battle.
The house exploded with magnificent force, sending splinters of wood and pieces of the roof flying high through the air. The debris fell everywhere in town, landing inside buildings, on heavily populated areas of the street, and on some of the cars that were scarce throughout the Village.
It didn't take long before the whole town was in chaos, trying to see what cause the blast, only to get struck down by green light that flew through the air as numerous as raindrops in a storm. The people were falling to the ground, ten at a time. Soon, it changed though, from a mission, to just some good fun.
"Incendio!" one of the Death Eaters yelled, sending a ball of flame right at one of the Muggles, who caught on fire instantly. She flailed around, rolling on the ground, trying to put it out. All she was doing was spreading the flames onto others. Nearly the entire group was in flames, running through the street, running to anything that had water. The killing curses started up once more, trying to prevent any escapes.
They rounded up any of the ones that hadn't started on fire, and start doing what Voldemort had told them to do. They started with the nursing mothers, cutting the breasts off, making them watch their own torture. If any Muggle had been using satellite surveillance on the town, they would have been sickened at the sight.
Men with no sense of right and wrong, or respect for another, ripping away at the women like they were cattle to be slaughtered. Tearing out the reproductive organs with hooks that would tear the stomachs out of cows, ripping off the toes with nothing more than a nail, severing the joints and ligaments and ripping them off with nothing more that pure strength.
The men were forced to watch this, watch as people they knew as Daughters, Mothers, Wives, Grandmothers and Little Girls were nearly eaten alive by these cannibalistic inhuman beings. They were forced to hear the screams of all of the women, high-pitched, low-pitched, ones they recognized from when they were babies for some people.
They were forced to see them get assaulted, destroyed in front of their eyes. Their purity thrown away like a broken toy. The worst thing you can see to happen to a nine-year old. They were screaming as hard as they could in pain and agony as these horrid creatures got their jollies off on her. But all it was doing was fueling them to go harder. They couldn't be stopped.
Blood was covering the ground like a lake of red on top of the cobblestone street. The women were being chopped up slowly, piece by piece, as if the things were enjoying see their pain. Like their own spouses, if they had any at all had never looked as appealing to them as the women do now.
They hit the women, cut them, and did what ever these beasts could to cause pain to the women who were getting tortured out of their need for a little fun. Soon, though, the screams died out, as the creatures surgically cut holes into the necks of the women, and cut out their vocal cords, making sure they would never speak again.
Most of the women had died already, their lack of blood coming out of the wounds left by their missing limbs and appendages. There was only a few left alive, and they were being forced to eat their own body parts. Fingers, tongues, noses, they were being shoved down the throats of the now unrecognizable females.
Then the males were alone, looking down at the beasts that were gathering up the body parts of the women with utter disgust and fear in their eyes, imbedded into their hearts, burnt into their minds. A fear that would last with a person until the end of time. An image that they wouldn't sleep without seeing every night, that would never leave their memories.
A pale white man with blood red eyes and slits for pupils, like a cat's eyes, stepped in front of them.
"I am Lord Voldemort. One of-"
"I won't do anything for you! You killed-"
"Shut him up!"
Crabbe stepped forward with a six foot blade and jammed it blade down into the man's skull. Blood oozed from the wound, flowing down his head, landing in his shirt and onto the street.
"Now, one of you will ride to Railwood, and tell them that anyone who opposes us will be killed in the exact same fashion as your puny little town. Crabbe! Choose the strongest one."
"Yes, sir."
He walked in front of the line, looking over all of the aspects needed, and chose an old man that looked like he was in his fifties.
"I said the strongest, not the weakest."
"He would be the strongest, master. He's the only one here that probably knows how to ride a horse."
"Hmm, maybe you right. Fine, we'll use him then. Now, kill the others!"
The cycle repeated itself in the exact same fashion as what had happened with the women, making the lone man watch as people he called his friends were gruesomely murdered right in front of his eyes, and with no way of helping them. All he could do was sit there watch his friends be slaughtered like cattle on a farm.
He looked at the pale man, and saw him walking into the town library. What would be there that he would want?
Voldemort walked into the library, looking at the Death Eaters who were throwing books off of the shelves, trying to find the one book that would give him the first piece of puzzle on his way to achieving ultimate victory.
"Haven't you found it yet?"
"No, sir, this library may be in a small town, but has five floors, and we have no clues to where it is in. Plus the task force is too small to find it in that amount of time."
"Very well. I will call in some extra Death Eaters to help you, but find that book!"
"Yes-"
"MASTER! We found it!" one of the Death Eaters called from the fourth floor.
Voldemort smiled. This is it, the first piece. He cast a levitation charm on himself and floated up to the fourth floor. He looked straight forward to see a large book titled The Myth of the Green Flame Torch misplaced between Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
He reached a hand out to touch the book on its spine, and ran a gentle hand over it, as if he was a blind man trying to decipher Braille. He then pulled the book out of its place on the shelf and opened it.
The book started to glow a pure white, untainted by a darker colors, just a white that wouldn't let you see the book at all. Then the form of the light changed, forming itself into a little rectangle. The light dissipated after that, leaving Voldemort holding a clear, rectangular, plastic card in his hand, with a rectangle at the bottom. It showed and Island called Besergi, and nothing but water surrounding it.
Where in the hell? Voldemort thought, looking at the map. He put it in the inside pocket of his robes and walked back outside, where his only prisoner was staring at the body parts that were being put into little baskets and held inside by a permanent sticking charm.
"You will ride to Railwood, or I will make you see this all over again until you do. Are you going to ride to Railwood?"
The man nodded, his eyes shut as tightly as they could, trying to block the images from his mind. What cause did they die for? What does this creature want?
"Answer me. Don't nod your head."
"Y-Yes."
"What? You will call me master."
"Yes, m-m- master."
"Better. Open your eyes. There is one more thing for you to see. Bring him to the edge of the town!"
Two Death Eaters picked the man up and walked him to the edge of Arrsburg. Smiles were implanted onto their faces as they walked. The two threw the man face first into the ground.
"You will watch as we finish off what is left of your puny life. Burn the town!"
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***Sick Part Over!***
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Harry Potter shot up, his mind going through mental stability checks to make sure he's sane. He looked around the room to see that he wasn't in the room of requirement, but in the Hospital Wing. How did I get here? Last thing I rem-. Just as his mind was remembering what was going on, he felt sick to his stomach. He looked around for a cauldron to help him with.
He saw a large one on the wall in front of him, and hopped out of bed, not being able to hold back his stomach any longer. He bent over the large cauldron and emptied the contents of his gut into it. His mind holding on to the still fresh thoughts of what happened to that town. A town he had never heard of, but a town he would never forget, Arrsburg.
He grabbed a towel from a small cabinet and washed his mouth off in the tap next to it. He put it back in the cabinet, where it automatically cleaned itself. He heard something moan softly from the side of his bed, so he looked to see Hermione curled up in a seat next to where he was sleeping.
"Mr. Potter! Get in that bed now!" Harry ran back into the bed as fast as he could, but Madame Pomfrey's scream woke Hermione up from where she was sleeping. She looked at the bed, to see Harry was awake. She immediately threw her arms around him.
"Harry! I've been so worried!" She went to kiss him when he put his hands on her shoulders.
"What?"
"Hermione, do you want to kiss somebody who just threw up?"
She backed away a little bit, and decided on kissing his forehead instead. Harry grinned as she did this and pulled away. Madame Pomfrey came in, her wand waving in the air. She gently pushed Hermione away from him, and back into her chair.
"Why do you have to be so careless, Potter? Whether it's you or one of your friends, you're always in here."
Hermione was chuckling beside him as Madame Pomfrey was proceeding to check him over for nearly every possible disease in the book. After fifteen minutes of close scrutiny, Dumbledore interrupted her rants about how she should be paid overtime for healing him.
"Poppy, Mr. Potter is not sick."
"I'm sorry to ask this, but how do you know?"
Dumbledore didn't say anything, just lowered his face, so he could see Madame Pomfrey over his half-moon spectacles, "If you could leave us for a moment," Sirius and Remus walked into the ward, "so we can speak to Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger, that would be grateful."
"He needs-"
"He needs to tell us what happened, what he saw."
"And why he was in a room that only house-elves knew of, that looked like a French restaurant with Hermione and a bunch of house elves looking like Muggle kitchen staff." Sirius chimed in, his face beaming. Harry and Hermione blushed profusely, "Is there something you're not telling me here? Are you two an item?"
Hermione could only nod, her face looking like the nose of Rudolph the reindeer. Sirius started to laugh, but Dumbledore put a hand up to stop him.
"Harry-"
Nymphadora Tonks came running into the hospital wing at top speed.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Her speed brakes weren't ever working properly, and she crashed straight into another bed.
"Tonks, what happened?"
"Sir, urgent, from a wizard in the town of Railwood." She handed him a light blue file with a Phoenix on the front.
"Professor, what is-"
"Remus, call everyone into my office in fifteen minutes, Order members and Teachers. We need to alert the staff. I need time to look at this and hear what Harry saw."
"Yes sir." Sirius, Remus, and Tonks left the ward, and Dumbledore approached the bed. He opened the file and took out some wizard photographs.
"Is this what you saw?" he asked, his face darkened. Harry took the pictures, looking at each of them in turn, and reading the captions underneath them. All had the name of the town underneath the picture, Arrsburg. He looked at a man on a horse, covered in large amounts of blood. Probably the Townspeople's.
"Professor, isn't that-"
"Yes, the town Hermione's aunt mentioned in the last vision you had."
"Aunt? I don't have an aunt."
Harry continued flipping through the pictures, and came up on the last one, which was a bunch of book covers lying on the ground, forming letters. As he read what the message said, he could hear Voldemort's voice in his head, saying them.
"The Green Flame Torch will be mine."
"Professor Dumbledore, I don't have an aunt."
"That you know of. Harry saw her get tortured."
"What? Why didn't you tell me? I thought I was-"
"Do not blame him, Ms. Granger. Blame me. I told him not to tell you, because I knew you didn't know about her, and I didn't want you to be angry with him."
"Sir-"
"We will talk about this at another time, Ms. Granger. Harry, is this what you saw?"
Harry nodded. Looking at the gruesome photos the man took. One, showed baskets, holding separated body parts. Another showed the burning town off in the distance.
"God, how did we let it come to this?"
"Our Intel wasn't as good as it was, and none of us really tried to stop this from happening."
Harry started to gag again, and Hermione had the cauldron to him in a flash. He threw up again, the new pictures surfacing more horrible nightmares that were later to come.
"I need to brief the order. Hermione, you and Harry come to my office when Madame Pomfrey is finished, I'll tell you the little bit I know about your aunt."
"Yes, sir." He walked briskly out of the ward, letting the doors swing behind him.
Harry looked up again, and Hermione pointed her wand at his mouth, and muttered a charm that cleaned it.
"Hermione, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I told Dumbledore because it was an act of war, and he needed to know. Before I left he told me not to tell anyone, especially you, because you didn't know you had an aunt."
Hermione sighed. She really didn't understand things at the moment. Finding out so many things that she had never known before. But she could always forgive Harry, whether it take a minute, hour, day, or week, "Harry, I still don't think that I have an aunt, so I don't really have anything to forgive you for." She wrapped her arms around his neck, to show him that she really understood.
"Thanks, Hermione."
"No problem."
Dumbledore had entered his office, carrying a large, light blue file with a phoenix on the front. He looked around, seeing everyone there. This will be a lot smoother then.
"As of 2300 hours this evening, we have received information of a Death Eater attack on a village called Arrsburg. Loss of life was severe. No one survived except one, who died soon after he had gotten into the next town."
"What is the importance of Arrsburg?" Mad-eye Moody asked.
"We believe it holds a map, or at least part of a map of some sort that leads to a powerful magical object dating back to the time of Merlin."
"Do we know what the object is?"
"From what we can tell, it's a torch that holds green flames. Voldemort calls it-"
"The Green Flame Torch." Sirius chimed in, his voice reasonably softer and more dreadful.
"Yes, Sirius, how did you know?"
"My family is the descendants of Ursulane, but as she was female, only females can protect their piece of the map. Narcissa holds our piece of the map. I don't think even Lucius knows about it though."
"Wouldn't she tell him?"
"I don't know much about it, but I do know about the curse Ursulane put on herself, that if the female protector was to tell anyone, all she could have was a male, and that male could only have a male, and so on and so forth."
"Why would that matter?"
"Well, the protection power can only go through females, and if any males were born into the family they would be the guardians of the map protector. But if Narcissa tells anyone, she won't have anyone to be able to properly protect the map, and a small amount of that power would go to Draco."
"Why would Ursulane do that?"
"I don't have all the facts."
"I believe Ursulane was a dark witch, but we'll have to look it up."
"Yes, we also need to find out what Voldemort is searching for to the letter, no educated guesses. Severus, do whatever you can inside Death Eaters to get information. Sirius and Remus, you will stay here and protect Mr. Potter. The rest of you, continue with your normal duties, but search for everything you can on this 'Green Flame Torch'. That is all. Dismissed."
Madame Pomfrey had finished checking over Harry, and was letting him change back into his school robes. He shoved the curtain back as he was trying to adjust his tie.
"Harry, you tied it all wrong."
"If I had my wand it would be done in a second."
"Come here." Harry walked over to her, where she grabbed the tie and proceeded to tie a Windsor knot around his neck.
"You can tie a Windsor?"
"Yep, my grandfather taught me."
"Is there anything you can't do?" Harry asked, grinning.
"Not that I'm aware of." Hermione replied, the corners of her mouth forming a grin. She finished, and loosened it a little so Harry could actually breathe, "Let's go see Dumbledore."
They walked out of the door to the ward, and Harry put his arm around Hermione and kissed her cheek softly. An innocent gesture she had been doing to him since the end of his fourth year.
They got to the statue, said the password and walked up the staircase. The doors opened and order members walked out of the room.
"Ah, Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter, come and sit down."
They walked inside, and sat into the two chairs in front of the desk, getting close together and holding hands. Sirius looked back for a second to see this, and smiled. Finally.
"Ms. Granger, you wanted to know about your aunt. Well, I think its best, if you read the letter she wrote me." He picked up a piece of parchment off of his desk and handed it to her.
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
I need your help. For centuries our family has guarded a piece of a map, which leads to the most important object ever known, and now that piece is in danger of taken from its place. The dark forces of Voldemort draw closer to me that ever, and if I get captured, I will probably submit to their torture.
If I die, I want Hermione to know about me, but I want this letter to tell her. Its not that I don't trust you with something as trivial as an explanation, but I would rather have it explained to her in my own words rather than someone else's. This next section of this letter is for Hermione to read only.
Dear Hermione,
I've wanted to tell you for years about me, but I knew that if I wrote a letter to you, your dad would make sure that you never got it, child. I would've been your Aunt Sarah, named after your great-grandmother.
I'm going to give this explanation as delicately and as bluntly as I can. As you probably have more Granger blood in you, then you know that it is hard to be gentle on people. That is one of the reasons why you don't know who I am.
Back when your father and I were about twenty, we were really close. Your father was going to go to a Dentistry University near our home, and I was going to start learning at a Wizarding University in the town of Railwood (It was destroyed in the first reign of Voldemort.)
Now, when I met my husband, Abath, your father didn't like it very much, because he thought it would separate us, even though Abath had a sister himself, and knew how much it would hurt your father to break us apart. He respected my brother, and even told him that he never wanted to keep us apart.
That wasn't enough to sway him though, and we started getting into more and more fights. The shouting matches would last for hours, and your grandparents weren't going to get in the way. They thought both of us were being irrational, seeing as they trusted Abath, and that they knew that he would never want to split us apart. And I was in the same boat because I was letting the things he said get to me.
Finally, after the first fight we got into after Abath proposed to me, I finally decided that I had had enough of the fighting. I told him he would never see me again, so that night I packed my room up and went out of the door (I flooed back and forth between school and home).
And to this day, we never have seen each other. He sent me one letter, telling me your sister ran away, and it was partly my fault. He said that she found out about something I was guarding, and that she was withheld from a school of magic. She didn't like any of it too much and ran away.
And that's it. I've been guarding something since you grandmother died, and if you're reading this, I have died too. The map has probably been taken, and Harry Potter (That poor boy, having to face so much) has seen it all. I need you to be with him, for there will be a time that he will need you more than anything, so if you're not one of his friends, become one right quick, because he will need you. I will always be with you.
Love,
Aunt Sarah Smith
P.S., I will see you in .25 hours and 15 Minutes
The numbers in the P.S. kept counting down, as if it was a set stopwatch. She'll see me when I sleep? Tears came to Hermione's eyes, thinking of an aunt she never knew of, and never got to know. Harry wrapped an arm around her, and kissed her temple softly, squeezing her shoulders in a small massage.
"Ms. Granger, that is all that I know, so I think it's best if you go back to your room and sleep. It has been a long day."
She nodded, allowing Harry to help her out of the seat, and walk her back to the prefect common room. They just sat on the couch for a while, cuddling, and the warmth of the fire spreading over them. Hermione was just looking into the flames, thinking about how much her parents really lied to her about, and how much more they still are. Harry sensed something was wrong.
"'Mione, what's wrong?"
"I'm just thinking, if my parents could lie to me so easily about this, how much more could they be lying to me about?"
Harry kissed the top of her head, "It does hurt, but you should confront them about it, but don't do it in a violent was. Ask them in a letter, about this, but don't threaten to hurt them or yourself. And know, that I'll be here to help you through this."
"Thanks, Harry." She rested her head on his chest, and he leaned back slightly, hearing her breath steady, watching her eyes close, and she fell asleep. He sat there for hours, stroking her hair while she was asleep, staring into the infinite depths of the flames. Much like Hermione's eyes.
Finally at one in the morning, he carried Hermione up to her room, and put her under the covers, placing her head on the pillow. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead.
Cho ran into the temple, to find her mother sitting in the middle, on a small pouf.
"Mother."
"Sit down, child. Have a cup of tea."
"No thank you, I'll just sit down."
"Fine, suit yourself."
Cho looked at the tea pot, and an extra glass. She finally grabbed the teapot and filled the glass.
"I wanted some tea."
"I know. What is your report?"
"The relationship has started. Hermione's trainer has entered our realm and started her own training, much like Harry's."
"What about the map?"
"Uh, there's a slight complication. The first piece has been found by the enemy."
"That's been expected. As long as Harry gets the training needed before he finds the other two, we'll be fine."
"There's another problem in that. One of the protectors happens to be a Death Eater."
"Narcissa Malfoy. I surmised as much. Well, before he finds the last piece then. How is Harry's training going?"
"Well."
"Good child. You may go, but finish your tea first."
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Hey all! Since you had to endure that very sick but necessary "Holocaust" scene (The nickname was made by Ryoko Blue) here is a preview!
Harry came out an entrance right where the Fat Lady was positioned over the Gryffindor Common Room's portrait hole.
"Password?"
"Light's fight. Listen, if anyone comes here, and you can't see their eyes, or if you see a man with long blond hair, or Voldemort, do what ever you can to stop him from getting in."
"I will. Thank you, Harry Potter." She swung open, and Harry ran inside to see five wands pointed at his face. Ron, Seamus, Dean, Neville and Leah were aiming their wands directly at his nose.
"Uh, guys, put the wands down."
Four of them lowered their hands, breathing a heavy sigh of relief. However, Seamus didn't. All he did was gain an evil grin upon his overly large face.
"Seamus, its Harry. Lower your wand, man."
"Why do you think I'm keeping my wand raised?"
"What's going on?"
"He took her away from me. Now I'll take him, away from her."
"What are you talking about?"
"Hermione. You always got whatever you wanted, didn't you Potter? Anything you wanted. Money, fame, women, anything. I wasn't mad at Ron, because I knew that it would never work out between the two. They always fought, or were too awkward to care about one another in that way. I thought after they stopped, I would have my shot at her.
But then you happened to come along, and steal her away from me. You always want what someone else wants, even if you already have it. You couldn't handle that I wanted her, so you took her for your own. Now, heh, paybacks a bitch, isn't it?"
Harry looked just past Seamus' head, and saw Ron stalking towards Seamus, with a knife in his hand. The blade was pointed down, ready for the kill. He walked silently behind Seamus, wrapped his left arm around Seamus' throat, and shoved the knife straight into his heart.
"I owe you."
"No doubt."
They both heard screaming coming from the other side of the Fat Lady. Ron didn't know who it was, but Harry knew it was Lucius and his men.
Nice, eh? Now for a Shout-out or two:
Ryoko Blue (Again, I know)- She gave me the idea for the "Holocaust" scene (As well as the nickname) with her scene in Chapter 22 in Soul Scepter. Thank You!
Slantenchanted/Ravenluna- She read everything I have given her and has given me the most constructive feedback. Thank you!
Harry&Hermione4ever- She first read the scene, and gave me the reaction I wanted, so I knew it was good to put in the story. Thank you so much!